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Couple Faces Charges After 'Hotboxing' With Children

An Oklahoma couple is in jail after accusations of getting their children high on K2, also known as synthetic marijuana.

Tabitha and Chance Derryberry of Duncan, Oklahoma, are facing various charges after they were discovered getting high with their children in the car on March 2.

Tabitha was charged with two counts of child neglect and two charges of child endangerment by being in actual physical control of a vehicle while under the influence. Chance is facing the same charges in addition to one count of actual control of a vehicle under the influence, second, and subsequent, according to The Duncan Banner.

According to police reports, the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office was contacted regarding a reckless driver heading into oncoming traffic around 1 a.m. on March 2.

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A police officer saw a young black couple drive by and pulled them over. What he did next left them stunned:

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A police officer saw a young black couple drive by and pulled them over. What he did next left them stunned:

The vehicle was later discovered parked off a highway, with smoke coming out of the cab, according to KFOR. The practice known as "hotboxing" is when the windows of a car are rolled up while people are smoking inside to get high.

"[Deputy] first thought the vehicle might be on fire, there was so much smoke,” recalled Wayne McKinney, Stephens County Sheriff, to KFOR News.

Both parents were reported to be “extremely disoriented, dazed and zombie-like” with a green substance around their mouths. Deputies searched the car and found empty bags of synthetic marijuana, eight partially used cigars with a green substance inside, and an undetermined amount of synthetic marijuana.

Chance told deputies he had bought the synthetic marijuana at a store in Lawton, Oklahoma, and that he and his wife made and smoked the cigars with the substance.

Two children, aged 3 and 6, were found in the vehicle and appeared to be unconscious.

“They had taken in so much of the smoke that was in the car, inhaled so much in their small lungs, that they were completely overcome by the substance,” McKinney told KFOR.

The younger child was found not to be wearing pants and had defecated on himself, according to the police report. The older child had dilated pupils and struggled to stand up.

"We took the children immediately into protective custody at the scene," said McKinney.

After being cleared by a local hospital, the children were taken to Stephens County Youth Shelters under the Department of Human Services.